Moineau style hydraulic motors and pumps are conventional in subterranean drilling and artificial lift applications, such as for oil and/or gas exploration. Such motors make use of hydraulic power from drilling fluid to provide torque and rotary power, for example, to a drill bit assembly. The power section of a typical Moineau style motor includes a helical rotor disposed within the helical cavity of a corresponding stator. When viewed in transverse cross section, a typical stator shows a plurality of lobes in the helical cavity. In most conventional Moineau style power sections, the rotor lobes and the stator lobes are preferably disposed in an interference fit, with the rotor including one fewer lobe than the stator. Thus, when fluid, such as a conventional drilling fluid, is passed through the helical spaces between rotor and stator, the flow of fluid causes the rotor to rotate relative to the stator (which may be coupled, for example, to a drill string). The rotor may be coupled, for example, through a universal connection and an output shaft to a drill bit assembly.
Conventional stators commonly include a helical cavity component bonded to an inner surface of a steel tube. The helical cavity component in such conventional stators typically includes an elastomer (e.g., rubber) and provides a resilient surface with which to facilitate the interference fit with the rotor. Many stators are known in the art in which the helical cavity component is made substantially entirely of a single elastomer layer.
It has been observed that during drilling operations, the elastomer portions of conventional stator lobes are subject to considerable cyclic deflection, due at least in part to the interference fit with the rotor and reactive torque from the rotor. Such cyclic deflection is well known to cause a significant temperature rise in the elastomer. In conventional stators, especially those in which the helical cavity component is made substantially entirely from a single elastomer layer, the greatest temperature rise often occurs at or near the center of the helical lobes. The temperature rise is known to degrade and embrittle the elastomer, eventually causing cracks, cavities, and other types of failure in the lobes. Such elastomer degradation is known to reduce the expected operational life of the stator and necessitate premature replacement thereof. Left unchecked, degradation of the elastomer will eventually undermine the seal between the rotor and stator (essentially destroying the integrity of the interference fit), which results in fluid leakage therebetween. The fluid leakage in turn causes a loss of drive torque and eventually may cause failure of the motor (e.g., stalling of the rotor in the stator) if left unchecked.
Stators including a rigid internal helical profile have been developed to address this problem. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,171,138 to Forrest and U.S. Pat. No. 6,309,195 to Bottos et al. disclose stators having helical cavity components in which a thin elastomer liner is deployed on the inner surface of a rigid, metallic stator former. The '138 patent discloses a rigid, metallic stator former deployed in a stator tube. The '195 patent discloses a “thick walled” stator having inner and outer helical stator profiles. The use of such “rigid” stators is disclosed to preserve the shape of the stator lobes during normal operations (i.e., to prevent lobe deformation) and therefore to improve stator efficiency and torque and power transmission. Moreover, such metallic stators are also disclosed to provide greater heat dissipation than conventional stators including elastomer lobes. While stators having rigid stator formers have been used commercially, there is room for further improvement.